The present invention relates in general to systems for three-dimensional viewing. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems for three-dimensional viewing which can be used by a viewer to obtain a perception of depth while viewing still or motion pictures needless of use of eyeglasses.
Various attempts have been made over the years to develop and implement methods and apparatuses to represent scenes and objects in a manner which produces a sense of depth perception, known in the art as three-dimensionality.
Aside from methods involving rotating objects, rotating mirrors, and the like (usually classified as `depth illusion` in the American patent classification scheme), and methods involving holographic techniques or using coherent light sources, the methods used involve a variety of schemes for transporting two different images to a viewer's left and right eyes. The two different images are typically produced by two cameras placed side by side in a manner which in turn simulates the vision of two human eyes.
The mammalian vision system, as well known, employs the differences between a given scene as perceived by the right eye and the same scene as perceived by the left eye, to extract information regarding the distance of objects within the scene relative to the viewer. Since objects close to the viewer appear displaced to the right in the view seen by the left eye, and the very same objects appear displaced to the left in the view seen by the right eye, while more distant objects show less such displacement and most distant objects show no such displacement at all, it is possible to calculate the distance of objects within the scene as a function of the amount of lateral displacement observed, and this, apparently, is what the human visual system does in our normal binocular (i.e., three-dimensional) vision of the world.
When a pair of images containing an appropriate parallax information is presented, one image to the left eye and the other to the right eye, a similar experience of apparent depth perception results. In the following, an image intended for the left eye is referred to as `left image`, and an image intended for the right as a `right image`.
The prior art of three-dimensional viewing may be broken into categories as follows. The first category includes hand-held viewing apparatuses (known in the art as `viewers`) of various sorts, based on lenses, prisms, mirrors, or combinations thereof which viewers are held close to the eyes and deliver an appropriate image to each of the eyes. The second category includes methods aimed at viewing images without optical apparatus held next to the eye (i.e. without eyeglasses and/or viewers), which methods are based on interposing a plurality of lenticular elements in the display. The third category includes systems involving eyeglasses worn by the viewer, which eyeglasses filter light according to its polarization. The fourth category includes systems involving eyeglasses worn by the viewer, which eyeglasses filter light according to wavelength (i.e., color). The fifth category includes systems involving eyeglasses worn by the viewer and employing switching mechanisms capable of rapid on/off switching (i.e., shutter systems) of optical elements. The sixth category includes side-by-side implementations such as random-dot stereograms. And finally, the seventh category includes methods employing flat screens for viewing images without a need for optical apparatus to be held next to the eye (i.e. without eyeglasses and/or viewers) and not involving lenticular surfaces. These methods are based primarily on interposing physical impediments arranged in a flat screen placed between the viewer and the image to be viewed, which impediments hide part of an image from one eye while allowing it to be seen by the other eye.
Each of the above listed categories has its associated inherent disadvantages as follows.
As far as the first category is of concern, viewing apparatuses of the sort which require lenses, prisms, or mirrors held in proximity with the viewer's eyes, are generally less convenient than alternatives which do not require special eyeware and do not require the viewer using them to hold the apparatus or to approach his eyes to special eyepieces. As the invention here disclosed involves no necessary use of lenses, prisms, or mirrors, and does nor require the viewer to look through a viewing apparatus placed or held neat the eyes, it is basically dissimilar and advantageous over apparatuses thus categorized.
As far as the second category is of concern, lenticular systems are relatively difficult and expensive to manufacture for high quality image presentation due to the amount of precision associated with their production. Evidently, lenticular systems are not well adapted for viewing systems such as computer displays and television and are therefore not in wide use. U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,351 to Shioji discloses an example of the second category, describing the use of a lenticular system, in which alternating lines representing parts of left and right images are refracted, each line through an associated lens, which directs it selectively to the right or left eyes.
As far as the third through fifth categories are of concern, they all require the use of eyeglasses or an equivalent by the viewer. The term `eyeglasses` is referred to herein in a general sense of an optical apparatus having left and right eyepieces held close to the eyes of the viewer in such a way that substantially all the light entering the left eye is subject to an influence imposed by the left eyepiece, and all the light entering the right eye is subject to an influence imposed by the right eyepiece. As mentioned, three-dimensional systems thus categorized all require the use of eyeglasses, which select, whether by color (wavelength), timing (shutter), or polarization, the images reaching each of the eyes. These categories include apparatuses having a form of conventional eyeglasses (e.g., ones used for reading), but also include devices such as, but not limited to, pilot helmets having head-up displays (HUD), virtual-reality headgears and similar designs. As mentioned, systems falling into these categories share a common disadvantage, they all require an inherent use of special eyeglasses or a headgear. The necessity for optical apparatus held near the eyes subtracts from the pleasure, comfort and naturalness of the experience of viewing the display, and may, depending on the system used, add significantly to the expense.
As far as the third category is of concern, polarizing eyeglasses deal with arrangements in which a display system polarizes light derived from the left image in a given particular orientation and polarizes light derived from the right image in another particular orientation. Accordingly, the viewer wears a set of polarizing filters one for each eye. The filter of the left eye passes light polarized in the particular orientation in which the left image was polarized, whereas the filter of the right eye passes only light polarized in the particular other orientation in which the right image was polarized. Consequently each eye sees only the image appropriate to it and does not see the image which is inappropriate to it, thus a tree-dimensional image is viewed by the viewer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,285 to Franklin discloses a system using polarizing eyeglasses to provide the left and right images to the appropriate eyes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,507 to Bos discloses a system employing polarizing eyeglasses to distinguish between the left and right images, and also uses switchable rotating means to determine, in a temporal sequence, which image receives which polarization. These and similar systems have the disadvantage of requiring use of polarizing eyeglasses. Certain further disadvantages characterize systems which use polarizing glasses yet do not use switching means (c.f., fifth category). U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,961 to Venolia, provides an example, and is representative of various others. According to the invention of Venolia, the display area is divided into subregions with left image and right image segments. Further according to Venolia, small polarizing subunits process the light emanating from each subregion of the display, and the division of the image into left and right image areas coincides with the orientation of the polarizing means employed in a first layer, such that all the light emanating from the right image is polarized in a first orientation, while light emanating from the left image is polarized in a second orientation perpendicular to the first orientation. The user wears polarizing eyeglasses, so that each eye sees the appropriate image segments and only those. An inherent disadvantage associated with such schemes is that part of the display surface is blocked from the view of each eye. In better cases where the image segments are small the blockage is experienced not as holes in the picture but as a graininess or low resolution of the three-dimensional image viewed. On the other hand, systems aimed at ensuring that all areas of the display space will be used in representing each of the left and right images (sequentially if not simultaneously) tend to be somewhat complex and are potentially relatively expensive to manufacture. U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,851 to MacDonald provides an example of a system with undoubted qualities but which might be expensive to implement. Yet, a system which could provide similar services in a comparatively simple and inexpensive manner would be of service in many applications.
For sake of completeness it is worthy to mention the artificial three-dimensional experience best known to the public. This is the traditional three-dimensional movie (i.e., 3D-movie), in which a projection system projects fill images of the right and left images simultaneously onto a common display (typically a reflective movie screen). Such traditional 3D-movies are presently displayed in for example Disneyland. This projection system has the advantage that each eye sees a continuous and uninterrupted image. Yet, this projection system has the disadvantages of (i) requiring the viewer to wear eyeglasses, and (ii) requiring special projection devices which involve two projectors (or a specially designed single projector having the effect of two projectors) simultaneously projecting related pairs of images onto the screen. Thus, this method calls for special projection equipment and, since it requires two separate light sources, it is not adaptable to standard computer displays nor to television displays.
As far as the fourth category is of concern, optical filters result in a right image made up of and substantially limited to particular wavelengths passed by a filter covering the right eye, and in a left image made up of and substantially limited to particular different wavelengths passed by the filter covering the left eye. Thus, in addition to the disadvantage of requiring the use of eye glasses, these systems prevent the use of natural color images.
As far as the fifth category is of concern, shutter systems are mechanisms consisting of elements capable of either blocking light or passing light, or of elements capable of rotating the orientation of polarized light (collectively referred to herein as switchable means). In both cases the mechanisms are capable of being switched on/off rapidly. In use, the switching of the mechanisms is coordinated with changes in the images being displayed, usually in such manner that the left image is displayed when the left eye's vision of the screen is enabled and the right eye's vision is blocked, and at a later time the right image is displayed when the right eye's vision is enabled and the left eye is blocked, wherein switching is intentionally rapid enough so that the persistence of human vision leaves the viewer with an impression of a continuous image. It should be noted that if switching would have been slower, an impression of flickering would have resulted. Accordingly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,002,387 to Baljet; 5,083,851 to MacDonald; and 5,245,319 to Kilian, provide examples of systems characterized by alternating eye 3D-glasses, alternating between left and right lens transmissiveness and synchronizing the left lens transmissiveness to left images and right lens transmissiveness to right images. Yet, these methods involve eyeglasses obligatorily worn by the viewer. This inherent obligation however is a primary disadvantage. Additional disadvantages of these systems include the complexity and thus expense of the shutter eyeglasses which must be connected to the display apparatus and simultaneously controlled, or alternatively (e.g. MacDonald) the increased complexity and expense of the display hardware itself. To avoid the use of complex eyeglasses U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,507 to Bos discloses an arrangement which allows use of passive polarizing filters in the eyeglasses, putting the more complex and high-voltage apparatus into the display device. U.S. Pat. No. 4,792,850 to Liptoh discloses a similar arrangement using circular light polarization. Nevertheless, these solutions have the disadvantage of making the entire screen appear and disappear to each eye during each cycle, which tends to increase the impression of flickering of the screen. As before, the principle disadvantage of the systems described by Bos and Liptoh is their dependence on eyeglasses worn by the viewer.
As far as the sixth category is of concern, side-by-side implementations such as for example random dot stereograms are essentially methods for utilizing parallax information, are difficult to see for many viewers, convey only simplified images, and cannot convey color. According to these methods a simple colorless image is combined with a complex background pattern, the background pattern substantially repeating itself at in interval less than the interpupillary distance of human observers, and the pattern being modified by the simplified image in such a way that elements of the simple image intended to be seen as being closer to the viewer cause corresponding areas of the repeating pattern of the complex background to be displaced towards each other. That is, if for example the background pattern would in large part repeat itself every inch, then an area representing a close object repeats itself at a distance of 19/20 inch, and an area intended to appear further away repeats itself at a distance of 21/20 inch. The viewer, often with some difficulty, views the stereogram by directing his right eye to some given area of the repeating pattern, and his left eye to an adjacent area of the repeating pattern, to the left of the point seen by the right eye. Since the patterns substantially repeat themselves, the viewer is (usually) able to coalesce the images. Thus the left eye is provided with a left image which is different (since it originates e.g. an inch away on the stereogram) from the right image. The eyes then have the ability to extract the information based on the consistent differences between the two images, and understand it in terms of the simplified scene which is in fact included in the stereogram only as modifications in the position of elements of the background pattern. Normal images have also been included in published stereograms, for example in the "Magic Eye" series of books published by Michael Joseph Ltd., London. In this case sets of normal full-color images with differing parallax information are included in the published image in such a way that they can be viewed by the viewer's directing his eyes in the same manner as he directs them for viewing a stereogram, namely by directing his right eye to a given image, and directing his left eye to a similar neighboring image which is physically next to the first, and differs from it in that it contains a different parallax view of the same scene.
As far as the seventh category is of concern flat screens for three-dimensional viewing are disclosed in several recent patents. These patents disclose systems in which grids consisting of transparent sections interspersed with opaque sections are placed in various relationships to the image being seen or projected, the image is an interspersed composition of regions taken from the left image (i.e., to be eventually seen only by the left eye of the viewer) and regions taken from the right image (i.e., to be eventually seen only by the right eye of the viewer), the grid or grids being placed in positions which hide regions of the right image from the left eye and hide regions of the left image from the right eye, while allowing each eye to see sections of the display which are showing regions originating from its appropriate image. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,632 to August, discloses a system for using a "line screen", August's system includes vertical blocking portions alternating with vertical transparent portions, and a second blocking screen parallel to the first line screen, also composed of blocking portions and transparent portions. However, August's embodiments (as described in FIGS. 11, 12, and 13 therein) suffer from a major drawback that large percentages of the field of view of each eye (well more than part, according to August's drawings) are hidden from the eye at any given time, yielding a grainy low-resolution image. U.S. Pat. No. 5,264,964 to Faris, discloses a method for creating a parallax barrier by placing pairs of small polarizing regions one immediately above the other and of opposite polarization orientation, thus creating opaque regions, and also describes an embodiment in which simple opaque regions are used in place of the pairs of polarizing regions. In both cases a barrier is created with transparent regions alternating with opaque regions, with size and spacing adjusted such that the left and right eyes looking through the transparent regions of the barrier each sees a different pixel on the display layer, thus creating the possibility for supplying each eye with elements of the left and right image which are appropriate to it. However, Faris' invention is limited to a fixed position of the viewer with respect to the display during the whole time of viewing. The images viewed in an eyeglassesless mode in accordance with Faris' invention are inevitably grainy, since they always include at least 50% of areas which have no image, corresponding to the areas in which each eye's vision is blocked by the opaque parts of the barrier. U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,246 to Marks, discloses a method in which a raster grid is used to block narrow strips of image from one eye and show them to the other eye, while distributing the images in such a way that portions of the right image are visible to the right eye and portions of the left image are visible to the left eye. This is basically a projection system using a diffusion screen between two raster structures alternating opaque and transparent sections, and as such, is similar to some of the embodiments described by Faris. It, however, shares the limitations noted above, i.e., a significant percentage of the field of view is occupied by opaque regions which do not transmit either image, thereby limiting the resolution of the visible image and producing graininess.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, systems for three-dimensional viewing which can be used by a viewer to obtain a perception of depth while viewing still or motion pictures needless of use of eyeglasses, which systems devoid the above mentioned limitations.